May
22, 2004 - Wearing a hijab has meant not being able to work at Walt
Disney World, according to a former employee who claims she lost her
job because she refused to remove her Muslim head scarf.

Aicha
Baha's civil-rights suit, served this week on Disney, may be the
first-ever challenge of the employee dress code at the Central Florida
attraction.

"To stop you from working for practicing your
religion doesn't seem right to me," the Morocco-born Kissimmee resident
said Friday. "There is a family here that is almost out on the street
because of Disney."

The hijab is a head scarf that some Muslim
women choose to wear as a sign of modesty. Disney policy prohibits the
wearing of anything but Disney-issued hats and visors.

"We
don't discriminate," Disney spokeswoman Veronica Clemons said, saying
exceptions to the dress code for religious reasons are made on a
case-by-case basis. "We do have cast members who have attire
significant to their religions."

Disney policy prohibits discussion of lawsuits, she said.

Any
form of discrimination over religious beliefs is prohibited by the 1964
Civil Rights Act. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
requires employers to accommodate workers' religious beliefs, "unless
doing so would impose an undue hardship."

Undue hardship is not defined.

Baha,
32, worked at Walt Disney World from 1997 until mid-August 2002 and
wore uniforms, referred to as "costumes," in her jobs as a bellhop and
a sales clerk at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, according to
interviews and the lawsuit she filed last week in federal court in
Orlando.

She did not wear the hijab during that time.

But
when she took maternity leave in 2002, her faith grew and she decided
to wear the hijab when she returned to work in August.

"It wasn't something just for fun," she said. "It's like God is asking you to do it."

When Baha returned to her two jobs, she wore the scarf.

One
was a part-time position as a bellhop. The other was a full-time sales
job with commissions in The Pearl Factory, a franchise gift shop in the
resort that requires employees to follow Disney's dress code, the
lawsuit states.

Her supervisors, she said, would not let her continue working either job.

Disney offered to accommodate her religious attire with a "backstage" job out of the public view, the lawsuit states.

The
Pearl Factory allowed Baha to continue wearing her scarf but
transferred her away from Disney property, where the dress codes didn't
apply. Her sales commissions fell from $400 to $700 a week to $40 a
week at the new shop in the Old Town tourist attraction on U.S. Highway
192, she said.

She quit the Old Town job because of the drop in
pay; Disney fired her from the part-time post because she refused to
remove the scarf, according to the lawsuit.

"Plaintiff refused
to work without her religious scarf as it is part of her religious
beliefs and refused to be humiliated and downgraded by accepting the
less favorable position in the backstage," the lawsuit states. "She was
therefore terminated."

Baha's lawyer, Frank T. Allen of
Orlando, described his client as an ideal employee who had embodied
multicultural diversity and tolerance that Disney appears to champion
through its worldwide marketing.

"This is totally contradictory to what they're portraying," he said.

What
Disney workers wear has been regulated meticulously since Disneyland
opened in 1955 to produce what is now marketed as the Disney
experience.

"A big part of that show is you, with your quick
smile, your eagerness to help and your willingness to maintain the
Disney Look that our guests have come to associate with our very
special brand," Walt Disney World Resort president Al Weiss wrote in
the current employee handbook. "Each of you has helped uphold our
heritage in so many ways, such as through your commitment to the Disney
Look."

Everything from the socks on their feet to chewing gum,
frowning in public and the cut of their hair is spelled out for the
theme parks' 70,000 employees. But the resulting beard-free image
conflicts with the distinctive religious attire and grooming practices
for devout followers of Islam, Judaism and some other religions.

Arab-American
groups say discrimination against Muslim women wearing hijabs has
soared since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Just this week, the
U.S.

Department of Justice announced that it had compelled an
Oklahoma school district to permit its female students to wear hijabs
in class.

"What is a surprise in this particular case, if these
allegations are indeed true, are Walt Disney's response to them," said
Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic
Relations in Washington, D.C. "It being such a huge corporation, you
would think they would be more sensitive to its employees' needs and
diversity."

A sales clerk wearing a religious scarf should not
disrupt anyone's Disney experience, according to the American-Arab Anti
Discrimination Committee.

"I'm guessing she's not dressed as
Snow White, just wearing the standard Walt Disney uniform," said Leila
Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the organization. "I don't think it [the
hijab] impairs or in any way detracts from a person's experience at
Disney World, and so our organization believes that you should make
accommodations for religious clothing."

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